Saturday, December 12, 2009

Poor B

Mmm happy Saturday!

Catching up on news this morning: it makes me so sad that Berkeley missed out on what would have been Toyo Ito's first building in the States. THE conceptual architect and interesting take on public vs private life in his designs.

From the NYTimes: "Last month the University of California abandoned plans for a new 140,000-square-foot Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. The project, designed by the high-profile Japanese architect Toyo Ito, was intended to replace a smaller existing building that does not meet seismic standards, but also to do much more: with its towering windows, huge interior spaces and curvaceous steel exterior, it was destined to become 'an icon for the entire Bay Area,' Berkeley’s chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau, said in 2008."

Poor B. From an Emily persective, Berkeley is already wonderful for 4th Street design shops/Paper Source and Anthro next to each other, a hugemongoes Discount Fabrics, and food+friends, but ohg this would have been so wonderful!

Some of Toyo Ito's designs:

TOD's Omotesando Building in Tokyo, 2004

Mm! The pattern is meant to be a reinterpretation of the elm trees that line this street. Both Tod's and the Mikimoto Building below are confined to the small and absurdly expensive plots of land in Tokyo and therefore maintain the typical rectangular shape, but stand out because of the texture created by the structure. In other words, insane in the membrane!

When can I go to Tokyo?!

Mikimoto Ginza 2, Tokyo

Sendai Mediatheque, Sendai, 2001

Sendai Mediatheque is an example of Toyo Ito's "simulated" city buildings. As a multi-purpose cultural space, it includes an art gallery, library, audio-visual library, cafe, and film studio. The floors are supported by a system of occupiable steel tubular lattice structures. An expression of lightness and Ito's design aim of stripping away anything that reminds us of gravity.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Hyde Park, London, 2002

One of the buildings for which Ito won the Royal Gold Medal in 2006, one of architecture's most prestigious awards.

Grin Grin Park, Fukuoka, 2005

Interesting inversion of architecture and landscape: landscape covers architecture rather than buildings shooting out of the ground.But really, I just like it just because it looks like a hobbit hole. Home sweet home!